


Panic! At the Disco

by Kira_Dattei



Series: The Old Guard Whumptober 2020 [18]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Immortal Found Family, M/M, Panic Attacks, Pre-Canon, Protective Andy | Andromache of Scythia, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:54:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27609290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kira_Dattei/pseuds/Kira_Dattei
Summary: Sometimes Nicky isn’t around to make sure Joe is okay but Andy does alright at the job.Prompt: Panic Attack
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: The Old Guard Whumptober 2020 [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1994617
Comments: 14
Kudos: 108





	Panic! At the Disco

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not a whump writer so I can't promise a huge amount of whump in all of these. I just picked the prompt from each day that actually sparked an idea and ran with it.  
> I'm mostly using these as a way to get a feel for the characters and I simply love the relationships given in canon and wanted to explore them.  
> Joe is the lucky whumpee for most of these because I just love him.
> 
> These are all going to be one-shots and they are as connected as you want them to be so you’re good to just read one and not worry about missing anything.

Andy sat up slowly, still feeling the last remaining sting of the head wound that had knocked her out. She hissed as her movement made her realize that her head wasn’t the only thing that had been hurt and she wasn’t completely healed up yet. Her left foot and ankle were trapped and had obviously been crushed but she could tell the damage had just been from the impact. There were still what felt like rocks piled on top of her lower body but there wasn’t anything that felt too heavy for her to work off on her own.

Because all she had to go off of was feeling. There was absolutely no light for her to see by.

As she started working the rubble off her, ignoring the sting of the pressure being removed from her legs meaning her foot could heal now, she recalled what had happened and was immediately frustrated with such a blatant oversight as to not double-check for explosives. Just because they hadn’t been there when Nicky and Joe had scouted the area the night before didn’t mean things couldn’t change.

And she knew those two well enough to not assume they’d missed it. Those two usually did the scouting because they were very good at it, the way they paid attention to details casually every day making all the difference when it came to noticing things that Booker and sometimes she could miss.

She just preferred the straightforward approach too much. It got the job done so much faster even if it tended to be messier once finished.

So, they’d hit an explosive on the narrow path up the hillside bordering the compound. She’d been in the lead, as always, and Joe had been right behind her.

That’s right, Joe had grabbed and yanked her to the side, pulling her off the path away from the rockface but there’d been a cave not far below that they’d landed on and she remembered him pulling her further into the cave before it had all gone dark with rocks that had been knocked loose from the explosion falling after them.

She was grateful for Joe keeping her from getting buried under rubble like that. If that had happened, they’d likely have to use their own grenades to try and work her free.

It was bad enough that they’d have to find their way out of this cave without being able to see.

She pulled her legs free and rolled out her ankles and then tested to make sure there was nothing else healing before she stood up, holding her hand above her head just in case it was low clearance.

“Joe, are you in here?” she called out. She couldn’t hear anyone moving or breathing but he could have been knocked out as well or killed and not yet revived yet. She decided to wait a little longer in the case that he was there.

Another few seconds and she heard the telltale sound of a sharp gasp of one of them coming back to life. It was ahead of her where the rocks were piled and she really hoped that he hadn’t gotten buried, especially since he’d made such an effort to make sure she wasn’t.

“Joe, you with me?” she asked the familiar question that she always asked after a fight. He didn’t answer and she heard him moving around as well as some shuffling of rocks from a little higher up before he let out a groan. She followed the sounds, crouching low so she could move without as much risk of tripping over something. “Joe?” He didn’t usually take this long to answer her and she could hear his breathing, knowing that she asked because she couldn’t relax until she heard them answer her. “Do you really want me to butcher your full name?”

“If you think it’ll help, be my guest, zaeim,” he finally replied though he sounded strained in a way that wasn’t necessarily pain. “I can’t reach my flashlight.”

“Are you trapped?” Andy asked, trying to not let him get too focused on that. Joe could have issues with being in complete darkness like this.

“I’m not being crushed but my right arm is wedged in pretty securely. I can’t tell if trying to move it will bring more down on me though. That’s why I was going for my flashlight. I think at least Nicky and Booker were far enough back that they didn’t get caught up in the blast.”

If they had avoided the explosion, it was fifty-fifty if they would come after Joe and Andy first or go after the target, using any assumption that the explosion would have taken care of any threat against them. It would likely come down to if Nicky kept his head since Andy was the only one that could usually get through to Nicky when something happened to Joe that took him out of Nicky’s sight unexpectedly. Booker had tried in the past but hadn’t had any success with it so far.

Booker had asked Andy once why she let Nicky lose control like that, why she didn’t try to do anything but rein him in a little. She’d shrugged and had at first just said something along the lines of how it usually solved any problem faster than if he’d been his usual composed, methodical self. But just before he’d been about to dismiss it, she’d added that it wouldn’t be right to try and control his fear.

Part of it was also that she just didn’t know how to put into words how those glimpses of what they were when apart were what made her as hopeful as they were that when they did lose their immortality, that it would be as they had come to it: together. She didn’t know what they would become if one had to go on without the other. She only had Quynh to compare that loss to and even that felt different as Andy and Quynh had both spent a long time apart before finding each other.

Her hand brushed against what felt like Joe’s shoulder and she felt him tense at her touch. He was jumpy and that was not a good sign.

She felt around his shoulder and up to his chest. While there were rocks on top of him, they didn’t feel like they were pressing in on him and she started cautiously moving around the ones that were obviously free, feeling him shifting to help as best he could from the ground. A few times there was the sound of rocks settling but Joe didn’t give any indication that it was in a way that was hurting or trapping him.

His hand was shaking, she’d noted each time their hands happened to reach for the same thing.

She felt around his shoulder, side, and around his head where they’d been working and felt like they should have enough cleared for him to try and work his way out. If nothing else, maybe they could get him angled differently so they could work his right arm free.

Andy took a hold under his armpit and pulled at him, feeling Joe working to push himself out. He managed to get mostly free but his arm was still pinned and when they’d tried to get it loose, Joe had gasped in pain so Andy had stopped him from trying further.

But most of his body was free and Andy patted around his gear vest on the right side where he usually kept his flashlight. She didn’t feel it and frowned.

“Joe, I hate to tell you this but your flashlight isn’t here. Maybe it fell out in the fall.”

Joe groaned in frustration and Andy heard a dull thump against the ground, assuming he’d either punched the ground or rammed his head into it. He’d likely been using the goal of getting his flashlight and at least getting them out of the complete darkness to keep from losing out to his hatred of the situation.

“Perfect. Then I guess there’s no reason to put off getting me loose any longer. You think my scimitar or your labrys will be the better option? We’ll only need to take it off from about halfway down the forearm.” He was rambling now and Andy could already hear the shift in his breathing and tone.

“The labrys will do better without the wide swing. It has a bit more weight to it. You sure you don’t want to wait for Nicky and Booker?”

“No thanks. The whole not being able to move away from the collapsed rocks isn’t exactly helping anything here. Besides, if they need to blast us out of here, it’ll be better if I’m already healed up and ready to go.”

“Fine but I’m not doing this again for you for at least another decade,” she teased. Of course she would do anything he needed her to do, even if hurting one of her brothers was just about the last thing she ever wanted to do.

It didn’t matter that they healed, it still hurt.

And this would hurt like hell and it would do so for the next two hours at least.

She maneuvered her way around his body and felt out where his arm was. She felt along where the rocks were pinning him just above the wrist and actually felt where it was digging into him. She just barely remembered to reach in, her own slightly smaller hand and wrist barely fitting, and she found his fingers and worked his ring off his index finger. This was one of the two rings he’d always worn for the past few hundred years and she wouldn’t let him lose it here. She touched her hand to his chest and patted at him a few times to get his attention and he touched his left hand to hers and found the ring, taking it from her with a quick but genuine thanks and then he went silent again though his breathing was so close to hyperventilating that she wondered if he’d pass out even before she took his hand off.

She used her belt as a tourniquet just below his elbow to just maybe prevent him from dying. And then when she did make the cut, his cry was muffled and she wondered what he’d used as a gag.

Andy moved to slide him further away from the rocks and into the small cave, finding the wall so she could lean against it and situate Joe between her legs with his head pillowed against her shoulder. She positioned his right arm over her leg so it hung away from them while it reformed. She rested her right hand over his chest, working her fingers beneath his vest so she could feel his heartbeat, feel if it stopped at any point.

It was racing right now along with his breath gasping out though it was still muffled.

She touched her left hand to Joe’s cheek, feeling his other arm lifted up to his face and she realized that he’d bitten down on his own arm so she pushed it away, taking his hand and ignoring where she’d felt the split skin that would soon be healed.

Joe was an affectionate and tactile person. They all were to varying degrees but Joe definitely took more comfort from touch than the rest of them. Andy was second in that regard but tended to deny herself if it was for her own comfort. But she wouldn’t deny Joe, not when she could help him.

His breathing hadn’t calmed down like it normally would have when he was just dealing with pain so the rush of pain had pushed him into not being able to ignore the growing fear of the absolute darkness.

Andy rested her forehead against his temple and spoke in low but commanding Arabic for him to follow her breathing, slowing her breaths down accordingly and taking deeper breaths for him to feel.

She hadn’t done this for Joe herself before but she’d seen Nicky calm him in this way before. It wasn’t something they had to help him with often, basically it being something that slipped to the back of their minds by the time it happened again. Which was something that could be said for all of them about the things that truly bothered them like this stemmed from.

The first time Andy had witnessed it happen, she had convinced Nicky to tell her what happened to cause it since it had been before they met and she remembered thinking that it had been understandable for Joe to be affected as he had. She’d forgotten the finer details of it over the centuries, pretty much only recalling that it had been one of the first times they’d been taken prisoner and Joe had been kept blind by burning out his eyes through most of it. And they hadn’t escaped quickly.

Joe was doing well in following her pace of breathing. He was good about following her, trusting her. Even after she’d failed Quynh, he still trusted her. She loved him for it as much as it hurt her to _know_ it was only a matter of time before she lost him, Nicky, and Booker just like she had lost Quynh. It would happen and it would be her fault.

“You’re beating yourself up back there, _zaeim_ ,” Joe suddenly said. She’d lost focus on him enough to notice the extent that he’d calmed down.

His heart was still racing and it was obvious that he was still having to work at keeping his breathing somewhat calm. But he’d focused on her and that was enough for him to figure out something about her like he was always good for.

It was moments like this that really made Andy have no interest in dissuading Nicky’s vengeful side, mostly because it was when she was just as likely to join him.

“I’m fine,” she replied.

“As you always are. What are you thinking about?”

“Just that I really don’t appreciate some people and some of the things we go through is just really shitty.”

Joe let out a light laugh, sounding exhausted. “At least that isn’t something unique to us like plenty of other things.”

Andy felt herself smile a little as well, Joe always so capable of changing the mood around him.

“It all passes, Andromache. Let it.”

He was sounding more unfocused, tired from his panic and blood loss. She was pretty sure he wasn’t dying but it could be hard to tell with how she couldn’t see how much he’d bled while his hand was reforming. His heartbeat was finally slowing down to a more relaxed pace but still felt strong. He’d obviously recovered enough to be able to distract himself with talking to her again. Though it was probably this exhaustion that was getting him to say things he usually left to Nicky.

“Some things shouldn’t just be let go. I hope you never have to understand,” she whispered against his temple.

Joe hummed quietly. “We are given an abundance of time that people don’t usually get to have. It is our choice if that time is spent in suffering. I choose to follow you, no matter what has happened. And while I can’t promise how I would feel if I were in her place, I don’t think I would hate you.”

Andy’s grip around Joe tightened reflexively. “You should. She should.”

“Maybe one day we’ll know for sure how she feels. She isn’t lost yet. Booker says so.”

Joe’s words were heavily slurred toward the end and Andy knew he was out for the count. He was still alive, just unconscious.

And maybe she’d get lucky and he wouldn’t remember this conversation for both of their sakes. There was a reason she didn’t talk about Quynh, especially with Nicky and Joe who had known her as well. And Joe would already likely be upset about this whole situation so he didn’t need to be embarrassed for saying something he usually thought was crossing a line with her. And she could pretend it didn’t happen easily enough just by being relieved he was okay.

She let her hand leave his chest and checked the progress of his healing and was relieved that it was more than halfway finished. He could sleep and recover a little of his strength spent on healing and then they could try and work their own way out.

She returned her hand to be positioned where she could feel his heartbeat. Because if Nicky couldn’t be there to watch over Joe reviving if he did die, she could at least step in for now.

She loved them all so much after all. That would never change.

They were all she had.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading. I absolutely love and deeply appreciate the feedback these are getting.
> 
> I think this is the first fic posted that I have Joe call Andy "zaeim" (even if it isn't the first time, I can't remember if I've talked about using is) and it means "boss, leader" according to a few different sites. I don't trust Google translate alone so I cross-referenced. If anyone reading knows if I'm wrong, let me know because I don't speak Arabic myself.
> 
> The next fic in the series is a direct sequel to this fic, written to fill a prompt given by a commenter asking for Nicky and Booker rescuing them.


End file.
